110 DISTORTED STATEMENTS OF 



which had terminated in their exclusion from the 

 country ; and, which, he was fully conscious, was 

 a very available and a wide field for religious zeal 

 or commercial enterprise to reap rich rewards for 

 the trouble of exploring. 



It is a matter of the greatest notoriety, that even 

 in the present enlightened times, it does not 

 follow, because the emissaries of any Government 

 visit and observe unknown countries, that they give 

 correct geographical or political information for the 

 benefit of other nations. Least of any, can such 

 disingenuousness be expected from the Portuguese 

 Court of the seventeenth century; and I cannot 

 therefore, but believe, confirmed as the opinion is 

 by the internal evidence of the book itself, that the 

 imperfect, incorrect, and distorted account of the 

 travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia, was written for 

 the political purpose of misleading the enterprising 

 spirits of other nations. Most effectually did it 

 accomplish this object, and for two more centuries 

 was this important country consigned to that 

 obscurity, in which, for so many ages previous to 

 its re-discovery by the Portuguese, its history had 

 been involved. This, however, was not the only 

 injury done to the progress of human civilization ; 

 for whilst the natives were thus allowed to fall still 

 lower in barbarism, the Jesuitical statements 

 interfered with European enlightenment; and 

 geographers and men of letters have been misled in 

 many particulars respecting the character of the 



